The Latest

We don't and won't typically post promotions within our blogs but this deal is a little juicy so we wanted to make sure to spread the word. Through this Friday, August 1, the latest Linux Journal Archive CD-ROM is 1/2 off the regular price. more>>

Jeff Jarvis is working on a book called What Would Google Do? Since Google just did something good for me — and for a market that needs help desperately — I thought I'd share my experience with Jeff and the rest of you.

What Google Did for me was radically improve one of the most annoying experiences in the Webbed world: registering a domain name. more>>

Everyone — or at least those with a penchant for the bizarre — will remember the strange and storied standoff that unfolded over the last several weeks between the San Francisco city government and allegedly "rogue" network administrator Terry Childs. We didn't really believe it could get much more absurd than it already had, but we were wrong, it has. Oh has it ever. more>>

Getting proprietary vendors to provide Linux drivers for their products has not traditionally been an easy process — indeed, that may be the understatement of the year. Convincing them to release Open Source drivers has proven even more difficult. (Read: Near impossible.) It's a day to celebrate, though, at least for Atheros users, as the company has just released a completely free wireless driver for its WLAN chipsets. more>>

A couple of weeks ago, I tangentially mentioned the need for contingency plans. Today, I want to look at them a little more closely. My current job is about as far away from Continuity of Operations (COOP) and disaster recovery (DR) as you can get, yet I still deal in the issues of disasters, and preventing them, both professionally and personally. more>>

How long before the carriers and the FCC admit that the new transmission medium for radio is the cell system? And how long before they also recognize that the cell system is properly part of the Net's infrastructure and not just cordless telephony with messaging tacked on? more>>

Six months ago, security expert Dan Kaminsky stumbled upon a flaw so serious and widespread that it could bring the entire internet crashing down — at least for those on the wrong side of the bug. more>>

Predicting the release date of a new stable version of Debian — which eschews a set release schedule in order to bring about a release when it is ready for release — is a task composed of a lot of perception, at least a little participation, and a bit of psychic prediction. It seems the crystal ball has once again been uncovered, as the Debian Release Team has announced a full freeze on the lenny testing branch as a precursor to a full release in September. more>>

Whether you call them "ultra-portables," "netbooks," or "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Computinis," it can't be denied that the low-cost, lightweight, Linux laptop has taken the technology world by storm. Conspicuously absent, however — perhaps excepting the somewhat ill-fated gPC — is a lightweight desktop for those who live online — until now, that is. more>>

A new global standard for the enforcement of intellectual monopolies is currently being discussed by representatives of the United States, the European Commission, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand. This new agreement is so important that it must be drawn up in secret, safe from the prying eyes of little people like you and me. Thanks, however, to the indispensable Wikileaks, a discussion paper outlining some of its possible proposals has surfaced, and from this it is clear that it represents a serious threat to online liberty in general, and to the practice of free software in particular. more>>

Non-linear video editing tools are great, but they're not always the best tool for the job. This is where a powerful tool like ffmpeg becomes useful. This tutorial by Elliot Isaacson covers the basics of transcoding video, as well as more advanced tricks like creating animations, screen captures, and slow motion effects. more>>